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To: orkrious who wrote (51285)	1/25/2006 8:26:02 AM
From: shades	Respond to of 110194

All this talk of hairdos - strange DJ EU Plan Calls For More R&D, Active Jobs Policies -2- Wednesday's announcement represents Barroso's attempt to recover the initiative after a tough first year in office. Many of his previous plans for jump-starting Europe's economies have faltered; both European governments and the European Parliament, for example, rejected his plan to free up the services market, allowing plumbers, hairdressers and dozens of others of small businesses to work more easily outside their homelands. The plan provoked fears in France and elsewhere of a influx of cheap Polish workers moving west. Politically, too, Barroso has struggled. Both France and the Netherlands rejected last year a proposed European Constitution. European leaders then rejected his calls for a dramatic increase in spending for the European Commission, agreeing after tortuous negotiations on a modest budget that leaves intact costly farm subsidies. The exercise also is part of the Commission's larger plan to scrap unnecessary regulation and refrain from imposing burdensome new rules. In the past, officials admitted they would have proposed dozens of new laws. Instead, they now say that needed laws are in place and that real action can only come from national governments. "We think 80% of the needed reforms must be made from member states," said one official, citing the example of child care. The Commission has the legal power to propose a law imposing minimum child care rules. It won't, though, arguing instead that such social policy is best left to local authorities to determine. The report released Wednesday includes evaluations of the 25 national reform programs drawn up by E.U. members. While Commission officials insist the process doesn't amount to naming and shaming, it does go out of its way to praise many Nordic initiatives. The Nordics are saluted for setting "up an integrating market for buying and selling electricity," for putting their public finances in order and improving the financial sustainability of their pension systems. Some countries come in for gentle criticism. Italy, for example, is chided for not setting "targets, timeables and details" in its program. Rome is urged to bring its public finances under control, take action to increase the competitiveness of its traditional industries which face stiff Asian comeptition, and raise its employment level. For the most part, though, the report is a laundry list of support for good examples taken from individual countries. Critics believe this hands-off approach is destined for failure. Anne Mettler, co-founder of the Lisbon Council, a pro-reform Brussels think-tank, complained that most national reform programs were "a laundry list" of "politically correct ideas that no one would disagree with, such as promoting lifelong learning, entrepreneurship, eco-innovation, and keeping old people in the workplace." Instead of such innocuous ideas, she says the Commission should take a much more ambitious approach and go ahead with controversial proposals, such as a law that would ease the way for service workers ranging from waiters to plumbers to ply their trade anywhere in the 25-nation bloc. "The most interesting things are the omissions in any of the reform plans - none of them mention the services directive," she said. In response, E.U. officials say the process is just beginning. They say it will be easier to judge the national programs in a year's time when "we can say whether the government has met its commitments or not," as one official put it. While the Commission refused to say in advance which countries' proposals were more practical or effective, Mettler said she believed the free market-minded Estonian program would be praised, while the much more general German ideas would be criticized.